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This installment of Sandman: Overture continues the lush art and expansive story of the previous chapters. The art by J.H. Williams III is, if anything, getting better with each issue. As Dream, his feline echo, and a human girl continue on their quest, we get more glimpses of what lies behind the curtain of the…

I was tromping through the garden in leisurely pursuit of my cat this morning, when I spotted what had to be one of the largest spiderwebs I’ve ever seen. It spanned all the way from a tree trunk, at about the height of my head, down to a bush at about knee-height. Normally, I’m not…

I don’t want to examine the emotions underneath my stomach issues. I know that emotions are at least partly involved. I’ve been more deeply affected by the stress of waiting than I have been by anything else in a long, long time. Pregnancy was intense. And grief. But waiting for agents to respond to queries…

When We Became Three: A Memory Book For the Modern Familyby Jill Caryl Weiner My mom kept a baby book. It was an album with photographs and notes, and in it she recorded my first steps and my first words. She pieced it together by hand, and included photographic prints, my birth announcement in the…

by Jay Mangano Today is my birthday. It also happens to be election day in America. I’ve reached an age where neither of these things mean much to me anymore. I’m not vibrating with anticipation for the fire hose of gifts about to open (a delightful benefit of being an only child). Nor am I…

I violated the very precepts of stranger danger the other week. I’d had my eye on a Playstation Vita, a portable gaming console, but the price of a new one was out of my budget. So I did what everyone does in such a situation–I turned to the vast and wonderful world of online sellers.…

Jackson traced a finger along the lower lip, making some final adjustments. High cheekbones, dark eyes, and pouty lips made it the perfect head for the standard model lithe body she would roll out this evening. She pushed her glasses up her nose and glanced at the clock. Scant time for testing, but getting her selfie ready should be enough. The head…

You wake up lying on the floor. You’re on your side. Blurred faces gather around you. “He has a hammer!” a woman yelled. There’s a sharp pain in your thigh. You lean back, shoulders stiff. You slide the tool from your body. A moment ago, you were in the hardware store. Before that, you were…

I’m ashamed to admit it, but I’ve forgotten her face. It’s become a disordered collage: the slope of a nose, the curve of a lip, a glow of brown eyes. Memory no longer assembles them into a face. So I paint everything else. Her front door. The in-between coat she wore in autumn. Her beagle.…

She found the battered camera behind the bushes, a small silver ingot of hidden treasure that glinted in the setting sun at the just the right angle to catch her eye. The metal was tarnished to a dull sheen, the round shutter button worn down to concave plastic white that fit her finger just so.…

This happened once before. I was in 8th grade, attending a high school play, admiring Billy Gregg’s performance as Sky Masterson in Guys and Dolls. I wasn’t trying to get his attention. He was a senior, and I wasn’t even thinking about boyfriends, not for real. Billy was delivering the line, “There’s only one thing…

Continued from last week’s installment of Digging in the Dirt. Sheriff Daniel Coyle huffed up the long, gradual hill a few acres from where he’d parked his gray Ford Crown Victoria by the storage barn at the small, family-run pig farm. Moist winds blew the mixed scents of fertilizer and grass around the field. Once…

“All your games are single player ones,” my sister complained a few months ago. The two of us were relaxing in beanbags in my room, staring at the woefully black TV screen on a lazy Saturday afternoon. “Isn’t there anything we can play together?” I scanned my shelf. “Maybe Child of Eden… wait, no, that’s…

by Jay Mangano My girlfriend bought a house. I say “my girlfriend bought a house” and not “my girlfriend and I” or “we”, because my girlfriend merits being called a number of things that I do not. Like secure, responsible, or adult. So my girlfriend bought a house and welcomed me into it. We’re a…

Length: 500–1000 words When: Publication date is the final week in October. Topic: Spooky Selfies What does that mean? Stories should (a) involve selfies, and (b) be vaguely related to Halloween, or something spooky or scary. As usual, contact the editor to sign up, or leave a comment here and we’ll get back to you.…